ICT

Long before the digital revolution, a little-known wartime technology called SIGSALY quietly reshaped the future of secure global communication — and Brisbane played a key role in its deployment. Developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories during World War II, SIGSALY was the world’s first digital voice encryption system. It allowed Allied leaders to speak securely across

There’s no shortage of headlines heralding the power of artificial intelligence. From promises of economic productivity booms to fears of mass job displacement, AI is being hyped as both saviour and threat. But amid all the noise, one critical question often goes unasked: what kind of AI are we even talking about? For most people,

Telstra’s new Connected Future 30 strategy represents one of the most ambitious attempts yet by the company to move beyond its legacy as a utility provider. As someone who has long commented on the telco’s struggles to transcend its role as a mere “pipe,” I find this latest plan both promising and fraught with significant

When I first explored the potential of laser communications in my 2020 article, “Is laser going to be the next telecoms frontier?”, it was clear that this technology held immense promise for the future of telecommunications. At the time, I highlighted the limitations of existing infrastructure, such as the high costs of deploying ubiquitous fibre

Last week I provided some key ICT predictions for 2025 and AI featured very high in that article. All sort of high level and highly impactive developments are most certainly going to happen for sure. But a little bit closer to earth what many people will personally experience is the massive changes it will cause

Happy New Year! I have looked at various industry prediction for 2025 such as those from Deloitte and Gartner based on that I have drown my own conclusion based on my understanding of the key trends and developments as I see them. It will come as no surprise that I see AI and cybersecurity –

The recent conditional approval granted by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to Starlink for its direct-to-cell (D2C) services is a pivotal step in the evolution of global connectivity. The promise of D2C services is nothing short of transformative: a world where your smartphone can connect directly to satellites for emergency communication, no matter how

Telstra’s recent financial results have exposed significant underlying challenges within the company, particularly in its enterprise market, which has long been considered a cornerstone of its business. The 13% decline in net profit, down to $1.79 billion, is more than just a financial setback—it’s a clear indication that Telstra is struggling to maintain its competitive

I was intrigued about Nvidia eclipsing Microsoft as world’s most valuable company. The company now has a market cap reaches over $3.3 trillion. In the meantime – driven by the AI boom – demand for Nvidia’s AI chips keeps outstripping supply. So, I delved a bit deeper into the company to get a better picture

The unveiling of  Subcom‘s comprehensive plans for new submarine cable routes heralds a significant milestone in Australia’s telecommunications landscape. These plans, outlined in marine survey submissions, unveil a grand vision to interconnect the western and eastern coasts of Australia, potentially extending to India. The scale of these ambitions surpasses previous expectations, hinting at a broader

Defense company DroneShield has opened new headquarters in Sydney, tripling its sovereign defense R&D and manufacturing capacity to $400 million. The new site in Pyrmont follows DroneShield’s recent $115 million capital raise, which it will use to scale operations. The headquarters will include facilities for DroneShield’s 120 local staff and a dedicated floor for high-tech

In a groundbreaking move set to reshape the global technological landscape, the Australian and Queensland governments have committed $940 million investment into PsiQuantum, a US-based tech firm founded by two Australians also has a base in Brisbane. This investment marks a pivotal step towards constructing the world’s first utility-scale quantum computer, which will be located

A  study published by the Bureau of Communications,. Arts and Regional Research delves into the realm of telecommunications spending among Australian households, utilising data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. The primary objective is to pinpoint vulnerable households that face a heightened risk of digital exclusion, enhancing the understanding of

On the day of the Optus Network Outage, I wrote an article with my initial assessment. I fine-tuned it in the following week and also used it for my submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Optus Network Outage. The outage on Wednesday, 8 November, sent shockwaves across the nation, prompting a deep dive into

Committee Secretary Senate Standing Committees on Environment and Communications Parliament House Canberra Brisbane 16 November 2023 Submission Optus Network Outage – General Analysis of the Optus Network Outage Incident I have been closely monitoring the developments of the Optus network outage since the early hours of Wednesday, 8 November. In response to this incident, I

Addressing Telecom System Vulnerabilities to Prevent Widespread Outages The recent Optus outage cannot be considered a ‘rare occasion.’ Over the last few years, we have witnessed several major outages across the telecoms networks, making it imperative for us to prepare ourselves for such events. Today, over 99% of telecoms traffic comprises data. Virtually every organisation

When TPG – Australia’s third-largest telecommunications company – released its half-yearly results, it became clear why the company had been keen to strike a deal with Telstra regarding infrastructure sharing. The company reported a 71% decrease in profits, down to $48 million, in comparison to the $167 million profit from the previous year. It is

In the past, we have explored the changing trends in the Australian digital infrastructure market, emphasising its growing significance in data centres, cloud computing, and data analytics, while also addressing climate change and supporting various industries. The recent restructuring of Telstra into three separate companies, with a focus on infrastructure, provided clear indicators of the

Telstra has once again made headlines with its announcement of a significant workforce reduction. The company revealed plans to cut approximately 500 jobs as part of its cost-cutting initiative, marking the first major round of redundancies under the leadership of CEO Vicki Brady. These measures are aligned with Telstra’s T25 strategy, aimed at streamlining operations,

As I had foreshadowed in previous opinion pieces on the Telstra – TPG merger, it was expected that the ACCC would block this. It was very obvious from the beginning that the merger was contra to the regulatory strategy that has been in place in Australia for over three decades. In my opinion Telstra played

My colleague, Robert Smallwood in Geraldton, WA at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (WA Government), has been testing Starlink now since March 2022 and he reports on his experience and in general, provides updates about Starlink and its mother company, SpaceX. He allowed me to use his report to write this article.

There were no indications that Andy Penn would retire as CEO of Telstra, but obviously, internally they have been working on this for some time. Telstra is really good at organising smooth internal CEO successions. It has an excellent pool of talented C-level people and there is no longer the ego element that, for example,

The Year 2038 Problem relates to representing time in many digital systems as the number of seconds passed since 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970 and storing it as a signed 32-bit integer. Such implementations cannot encode times after 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038. At that time, systems might crash and will be unable

I have mentioned my friend and colleague Fred Kappetijn before. We regularly look at bigger issues and one of these has been the role of information in our universe. This might be an article you might want to ponder about over the Christmas break This is not your usual way of discussing information. This goes

We had a very interesting presentation and discussion regarding the topic of interplanetary internet with my international colleagues of which Vint Cerf – one of the “fathers of the internet” – is also a member. As a partner of the Interplanetary Networking Special Interest Group (IPNSIG), he took us on a journey that he has

In September 2021, Telstra CEO Andy Penn revealed the company’s plan for the next four years, unveiling T25 — the next tranche of T22, which is part of an ongoing transformation of the telco. This is the company’s strategic program aimed at leading the Australian telecommunications market by simplifying its operations and product set, improving

By Ben Grubb in InnovationAus In 2008, Professor Coutts was appointed by then-communications minister Stephen Conroy as one of six members of a panel of experts to assess proposals to build the NBN and to advise the government on the awarding of a $4.7 billion contract to part-fund its construction. The panel eventually rejected all

The Australian Government together with Telstra have made a $2 billion offer for the Digicel telco assets in the South Pacific.  The Irish company is one of the largest mobile operators in island nations in both the Caribbean and the South Pacific. It is facing financial difficulties because of the drop in revenues from tourists

Recently, I visited the Northern Territory. Apart from the occasional business meeting in Darwin, this was my third trip to this amazing part of Australia. I first spent time here in 1988, when I lived for two weeks with the Angatja people in Amata, approximately 100 kilometres south of Uluru. My second trip some 10

Telstra is finalising its restructuring that we discussed in previous articles here and here. With the restructuring, it very much looks like the focus will shift towards infrastructure rather than digital services — that battle might have been lost. While the Telstra restructuring is heralded as a good move, it is important to put this

Over the last few weeks  I have reported on the restructuring of Telstra. The proposed restructuring is exciting new challenge for the company. It will now all depend on the direction the execution will take. This is the third significant opportunity for Telstra to reinvent itself. The first time was in the late 1990s when

For decades, we have basically been conditioned to look at the telecoms market based on the regulatory arrangements that exist around it. The Postmaster-General’s Department (PMG) which became Telecom Australia was a state-owned business that had the monopoly on all telecoms services and was mainly paid for by taxpayers. The market was opened in the

It has taken a long time but it is good to see that Telstra has finally recognised that a significant part of its business is infrastructure. The business model of infrastructure is rather different from that of services. Infrastructure will not necessarily achieve high short-term returns but it will deliver long term very steady returns

Former AAP Telecommunications executive Brian Perkins has died in Sydney, aged 88. Brian was my mentor in the telecoms industry during the 1990s. I have very fond memories of him, most importantly as a person. He generously shared his understanding of the industry and the many contacts he was able to build up during that

When I became involved in the telecoms industry back in the late 1970s, we were just seeing fibre optic cables being commercially developed by Corning. Over the following decades, I have been asked many, many times — do we need fibre cables or wireless technologies and what is next? During all that time, my answer

Australia has progressed to now be one of the four major sub-markets for data centres in Asia alongside Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. As data centres become larger and more efficient, new data centres are generally being built in centralised areas, mainly in the larger cities of Sydney and Melbourne, in order to achieve the

Developments in the telecommunications industry and the broader digital economy have opened up many new markets over the last few decades. Telecoms has changed from a more or less standalone, horizontally-organised industry to one that has become a key facilitator in a range of vertical markets. The keyword that is used to indicate that change

While the network neutrality debate mainly applies in the U.S., it recently flared up in Australia when NBN Co discussed separate pricing regimes for video-based infrastructure. Net neutrality is breached when telecommunication companies provide a preferential pricing regime for companies offering video-based service. This basically creates a two-tiered system: a premium service for those providers

You might recall my recent visit to Armenia, where I had several smart city discussions. Of course, it was with great interest that I read BuddeComm’s new report on Armenia, a country that I will keep an eye on and certainly a country that warrants the attention of innovators, start-ups and investors as a range

Comment This cost cutting was basically the only option out for Telstra in its current difficult situation. Over the last 30 years it has tried a lot of different things. I was at the launch of their Asia campaign in Geneva in  1992 where they claimed that by 2000, 25% of revenues would come from

TPG Telecom Limited acquired local ISP iiNet. TPG is now Australia’s second-biggest provider of fixed-line broadband in Australia with over 1.7 million customers. Services including voice, internet and data solutions are provided to a customer base ranging from the consumer market through to small and medium enterprises, corporate and government sectors. The company also owns a

It is worthwhile to analyse what is behind Telstra’s recent announcements that it will both cut its dividend and sell $5bn in future NBN revenue. These announcements drowned out the rather solid earnings for the previous financial year and an interesting program of capital investments in its existing network. While the NBN deals negotiated by

BuddeComm describes ‘big data’ as looking at intelligent outcomes that can be achieved from data collaboration. The most critical issue here is strategic management, rather than technology. Big data has become a vital tool as competition is forcing many companies to transform their organisations from a company-centric approach to a customer-centric one. The fact that

fter the rowdy 1990s and early 00s the dust did settle a bit on the competition problems that continued during that period – more than 20 Inquiries, many court cases and ongoing regulatory corrections. The situation settled down somewhat with the arrival of a new CEO at Telstra, David Thodey in 2006. Subsequent changes to

In 2016 China launched “QUESS” (Quantum Experiments at Space Scale), a new type of satellite that it hopes will be capable of “quantum communications” which is supposed to be hack-proof, through the use of “quantum entanglement”. This allows the operator to ensure that no one else is listening to your communications by reliably distributing keys

After 32 years of publishing the monthly Telecommunications Newsletter in print, we have reached the end of our printed era. We were the first telecommunications newsletter to be printed in Australia but it will now only be available online, where it continues as a free weekly newsletter to some 4,000 customers, as well as a blog (2,000

There certainly is a lot of interest in the M2M and Internet of Everything (IoT) market in 2016. But what we are seeing is only what is happening on the surface. Most of the M2M activities are taking place unnoticed. For example, all new electronic devices are now M2M devices. Tens of millions of smart